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US Open Celebrates 50 Years of Equal Pay With Historic Finals

US Open Celebrates 50 Years of Equal Pay With Historic Finals

By Tennis Now Staff | @Tennis_Now | Monday, September 11, 2024

The US Open celebrated 50 years of equal prize money.

Players and fans pumped up the party to record-setting levels.

More: Djokovic Captures 24th Grand Slam Title

The USTA today released some 2023 US Open stats that show record-setting attendance and digital growth to the tournament’s official website.

Among the stats, officials issued today:

On the Court

Nineteen-year-old American Coco Gauff captured the hearts of America by winning her first major singles title, defeating Aryna Sabalenka in front of a record women’s singles crowd of 28,143.

Gauff is only the third American teenager to win the US Open women’s singles championship, joining Serena Williams (1999) and Tracy Austin (1979, ‘81), and her gutsy, come-from-behind performances – three victories coming after losing the first set – had only been matched in the Open Era by Serena Williams in 1999.

Novak Djokovic won his record-extending 24th Grand Slam men’s singles title, defeating Daniil Medvedev. It’s the fourth US Open men’s singles title for the 36-year-old Serbian, who is now the oldest men’s singles champion in US Open history. No other player has won 24 Grand Slam singles titles in the Open Era (since 1968).

Americans continued to set the pace for the world at large on the court. Forty-three Americans competed in the men’s and women’s singles main draws at the US Open, capping a year in which the U.S. led all nations in singles main draw participants at every Grand Slam. Four Americans reached the second week of the main draw in both men’s and women’s singles, the first year for those numbers together since 2002.

Three U.S. men – 25-year olds Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe and 20-year-old Ben Shelton – also reached the quarterfinals, the most at the US Open since 2005, while Shelton became the youngest American US Open men’s semifinalist since Andy Roddick in 2002.

Dutch wheelchair player Diede de Groot won her sixth US Open singles title, tying Esther Vergeer’s record, and her 12th consecutive wheelchair major, completing three consecutive calendar-year Grand Slams. The US Open Wheelchair Championships contested the first Wheelchair Grand Slam event where all three adult divisions – men’s, women’s and quad – had 16 competitors in the singles field and eight teams in the doubles field.

Record-Breaking Attendance

The US Open reached new…

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